Survivors
by Davnthewarlock
Summary: After the death of the Meta, the Reds and Blues return to Valhalla and attempt to adjust to their new lives without the war. But the arrival of a man long thought dead will change life for everybody. Reviews very much appreciated.
1. A Warm Welcome

The sun, as always, was hanging high above Valhalla. In the few weeks since the death of Meta, the canyon had no longer been deserted. The Reds and Blues had returned to their respective bases, not knowing (or at least, not caring enough to figure out) anywhere else to go. Nobody complained about returning there, after everything that had happened, it made no sense to anyone to part ways now. With Sarge finally realizing the war was fake, there was no more fighting, which (to Grifs' relief) meant less work. The soldiers each had their own ways of adjusting to their new lives within the former freelancer training outpost.

Sarge, with no more enemies to fight, kept himself busy by working on repairing Lopez, as well as occasionally training with Washington, who was having a hard time losing his freelancer habits. Simmons, due to both boredom and his ever present desire to kiss Sarges' ass, was helping with the repairs to Lopez. Grif spent the majority of his time napping in his room, which Sarge and Simmons continued to yell at him for. But due to Sarge technically having no authority over him, and the fact that he generally would drown out Simmons' complaining, they couldn't get him out of his room.

The Blues did very little as well. Tucker pretty much sat around watching T.V. while Caboose usually spent his day following Wash around, much to the annoyance of the former freelancer. Doc, who did indeed seem to have developed Stockholm syndrome, did this as well, when he wasn't trying to find creative ways to "encourage friendship and brotherhood" between all the soldiers in the canyon. All in all, things had been rather uneventful.

This day started no different, the Reds and Blues going about their normal business, none of them actually leaving their bases. To any onlooker, it would have appeared that the canyon was deserted.

And that was exactly how it looked to the soldier standing on one of the cliffs overlooking Valhalla. He wore standard mark VI armor, dark green in color with a teal trim. He looked over the canyon, looking at the bases, the waterfall, and the crashed Pelican. He stared at the downed ship for a long moment before commenting "Well, I guess this is the right place"

A shimmering red figure appeared on his shoulder "I told you this was the correct place before we even arrived here"

The soldier rolled his eyes "I know, I know. I should never doubt you. Can we skip this and just head down there?"

"As you wish" the figure replied before vanishing.

The soldier sighed and walked down into the canyon, heading in the direction of the Pelican, passing Red base. "And you're sure these bases are empty?"

The figure reappeared "Positive. The remaining soldiers here were killed shortly after the arrival of agent-"

"Maine." he finished for him

"Yes, agent Maine."

"Remind me, which AI did he get on his little visit to this place?"

"I believe he obtained both Gamma and Omega"

"So Wyoming and Texas then."

"Correct"

"I still can't believe Maine would have been able to kill them both, unless one had killed the other before he arrived"

"It's possible, the two had something of a rough history"

"I remember" he sighed, stopping for a moment. He thought for a moment on the two freelancers who had met their ends in this canyon. His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the shimmering companion on his shoulder.

"Warning, motion detected from the Red base."

"What? You said the bases were empty" he growled, readying his battle rifle and staring intently at the entrance to the base. He had not waited long when a soldier in maroon armor emerged. He stopped immediately at the site of the green armored soldier, and quickly noticed the rifle aimed at him.

"Oh fuck!" the terrified soldier yelled, before retreating back into the base. A few moments later, a soldier in standard issue red armor and carrying a shotgun jumped from the top of the base, landing right in front of him.

"Freeze dirtbag!" the newly arrived red soldier demanded, shotgun aimed at the other mans' head.

"You need to back away right now…." he replied. "And watch who you call dirtbag."

The two stared at each other, weapons aimed for killing shots. Neither moved or said anything for a few seconds, before the green armored man stated "I said back away. And drop you weapon while you're at it."

"Son, I know you just met me, but one thing you should know. Nobody, and I mean nobody, makes me get rid of my _shotgun_."

"I said drop it!" he growled, raising his rifle to aim at the mans' head.

"And I said, shotgun."

"Yes, you said shotgun, what's your point?" He paused at the sound of an engine. He turned toward the noise to see a warthog come around the side of the base, the maroon soldier manning the gun while an orange armored soldier drove. He quickly turned and delivered a backhanded punch to the red armored soldiers' head and kicked the shotgun from his hand. He then quickly rolled out of the way of the Warthog, which would have crushed him flat.

He got to his feet as the vehicle turned around, the gunner immediately firing on him. Moving quickly, he took cover behind a large rock. He lobbed a grenade over it towards the Warthog before falling forward as something slammed against the back of his head. Growling and turning over, he saw the red armored soldier, standing above him, shotgun aimed at his face.

"Got ya now dirtbag, you just got Sarged."

Narrowing his eyes, the soldier in green kicked the shotgun, sending it flying out of its owners' hand. He smirked inside his helmet, getting to his feet and catching it, shooting at the other mans' head. The shot missed as the target rolled around to the other side of the rock. He was about to pursue, but stopped as several shots hit the ground right in front of him. He growled and turned in the direction the projectiles had come from, to see the other two soldiers in the warthog.

"Damnit Simmons! How the hell did you miss?"

He growled and began running towards the vehicle, and the maroon one, apparently called Simmons, panicked, seeming to forget he had a powerful turret aimed at his opponent.

"Shut up and drive Grif, hurry!"

He ran faster as Grif attempted to back up "Iota, activate strength increase."

"Acknowledged" his companion replied.

He leapt at the warthog, strength coursing through him, smashing down on the front of it, denting it heavily and sending the two men inside flying from the vehicle.

Grif got up, complaining "Why does that fucking jeep get wrecked every time we drive it?"

Grif was quickly on the ground again as his attacker delivered a powerful kick to his chest which sent him flying into the air, where he somehow landed on his balls on the wall of his base. Simmons raised a battle rifle and shot at the green soldier, who avoided the shots, grinning beneath his helmet as he charged his enemy.

He grabbed Simmons by the arm, spun around several times, Simmons being lifted by the arm into the air as he did so, before sending him flying straight into Grif, the pair collapsing on top of the base. Satisfied that his foes were incapacitated, the green armored fighter turned to see Sarge rushing at him, shotgun aimed, preparing to fire.

Avoiding a blast, he did a jumping spin kick that knocked Sarge off his feet, and crashed his head against a rock. Looking around, and not seeing the other two and not seeing Sarge moving, he turned and began to walk towards the Pelican. He quickly stopped in his tracks as a gunshot hit the ground right in front of his feet.

Turning, he was greeted by the site of three new soldiers, one in mark V armor and carrying a standard assault rifle, one in teal armor holding an energy sword, and one in cobalt armor with a yellow trim who was pointing a battle rifle at his head.

He turned at the sound of movement to see the Reds behind him, weapons trained on him. He sighed and slowly placed his rifle on the ground, dropping to his knees and putting his hands behind his head "Iota, deactivate enhancement" he muttered.

The cobalt armored soldier approached him slowly "Alright, who are you?"

He froze, he knew that voice.

"Wash?" he asked. "Wash, is that you?"

Washington stopped. "How do you know my name?"

He chuckled "Really David, has it been that long where you don't recognize me? I'm hurt"

"Penn?"

"Bingo"

"B-but you're dead"

"Clearly not."

Washington looked up at the other soldiers. "Lower your weapons, I know this man. Everybody, this is agent Pennsylvania."


	2. Old Friends and Old Enemies

_ Enjoy chapter 2! If you like it, review_

After a few minutes of the simulation soldiers shouting "God damnit, not another one," Penn and Wash walked away from the group. It took them a while to get out of range of them yelling and arguing about what to do with the new Freelancer, but at last they found a quiet area near the ocean.

"I'm guessing you have some questions" Penn said after a moment.

"A few, yeah. For starters, how are you still alive? Everyone thought the Meta killed you"

"He almost did. He had me cornered on a cliff over a river. I was out of ammo and was running out of power for my armor enhancement. So I tried something I honestly did not expect to work. I jumped into the river, activating my recovery beacon and ejecting it at the same time. The river was nice and murky, so I swam down to the bottom and grabbed onto a big rock at the bottom to keep myself anchored while my beacon got swept down river. I stayed under as long as I could before surfacing, fully expecting to die. But surprisingly, Maine took the bait. I went to a nearby simulation outpost, stole some ammo and a Mongoose, and took off. Never saw Maine again, thank God."

"Well that explains why I never found a body, but why didn't you come back to command?"

"Wash, this happened after I deserted, remember? I assumed Maine was sent by the Director to kill me. I was trying to fool Maine and command into thinking I died. Looks like I succeeded."

"You did. You're listed as Kia"

"So are you, looks like they got that wrong too."

"Yeah."

"So how are you still alive? The reports said you got killed in the same battle as Texas and Maine."

"Well, the reports were wrong. As you can see, I'm alive."

"So, you faked your death and joined the Blues here?"

"Yeah. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Well, I heard this was where Wyoming and Tex died, although she apparently died at Avalanche. I came to pay my respects."

"Seriously?"

Penn looked over at him, a slightly irritated expression hidden under his visor. "Is that so surprising? We were all a team, remember? All of us. I've been going and paying my respects to all of the dead Freelancers. They were my friends once Wash, I wanted to say goodbye."

Wash looked at him for a moment, before shaking his head with a slight chuckle "Forgot how sentimental you are Penn."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Considering our line of work, it really isn't"

Penn shook his head this time. "Still have that pole up your ass I see"

"Bow chicka bow wow!" A voice rang out from the other side of the canyon. Wash muttered something to himself and turned towards the voice.

"Shut up Tucker!" He turned to Penn "And what do you mean?" he demanded.

"You're joking right? You always have that serious attitude, you need to learn to loosen up a little."

"Hey, I'm plenty loose." He immediately cringed under his helmet.

"Bow chicka bow wow!"

"Damnit Tucker, shut up!"

Penn stood snickering at the exchange, "You were saying?"

Wash sighed "Whatever. Come on, I'll introduce you to the others." He turned and walked back towards the group.

Penn followed "Well, this should be interesting"

The pair soon reached the group, who were still bickering in the center of the canyon, except for Grif, who was away from the group, drinking a beer as he watched the show in front of him.

"What are they fighting about this time?" asked Wash.

"Well, first they were talking about your buddy" He jerked his head in the direction of Penn. "And I really don't understand what happened next, now they're arguing about Michael Bay."

Penn and Wash just stood there in confusion.

"Sarge, for the last time, his movies are crap! It's nothing but explosions!" Simmons yelled in his normal whiney voice.

"And that's exactly why it's genius!" Sarge retorted. "Everybody loves explosions, they're the greatest expression of violence!"

"Besides" Tucker cut in "His Transformers movies had Meghan Fox. The movie is worth watching just for that!"

Caboose looked at them for a second before saying "Wait, there was a fox in Transformers? What was its name?"

"Caboose, shut up!" The trio shouted back.

Penn turned to Wash "So, these are the soldiers you live with?"

"Yep."

"I'm so sorry man."

Washington disregarded the comment and turned to Grif, seeing as he was the only one not involved in the foolish argument. "This is private Grif, one of the Reds."

"Hello" Penn said

"Hey man, what's up?"

Wash turned to the bickering soldiers, sighed, and pulled a grenade from his pocket. "Penn, Grif, look away" He tossed the grenade, which landed in the middle of the group before exploding in a blinding flash of light.

"What the fuck? I can't see! Man, my mom was right when she told me I'd go blind after all." Tucker shouted as he stumbled around, his hands covering his Visor.

"I'm blind too, I can't hear anything!" Caboose replied.

"Damnit Caboose, blind means you can't see!" Simmons shouted.

After a few minutes of the group stumbling around and screaming profanities, the soldiers regained their vision. Most of them muttered some curses at Washington as they gathered in front of him.

Wash ignored the comments and began introductions by pointing at Caboose. "This is private Caboose. Caboose, this is agent Pennsylvania."

"Hi mister Freelancer person!" Caboose shouted joyfully.

"Um, hello."

Washington then pointed at Tucker "This is Tucker"

"Hello Tucker"

"Yo."

"This is Simmons"

"Hi Simmons."

"Hello"

"And this is Sarge"

"Um….what's his real name?"

"Just call him Sarge."

"Okay…."

Penn looked around at the group of soldiers. "Well, it's nice to meet you all."

Washington nodded before addressing the others "Okay, so if Penn is going to be staying here, we have to decide which team he'll be sharing a base with."

"Wait, what? Staying?" Penn asked.

"You aren't going to?"

"I honestly wasn't planning on it."

"Penn, there is really nowhere for you to go at this point. Project Freelancer is gone, and anyone connected to it is wanted by the UNSC. This is probably the safest place for you. They don't care about this place, I've been hiding here with no problems. And if they do ever find out, survival chances are a lot better with two Freelancers instead of one."

Penn stood silent for a moment, thinking it over before nodding "Alright, I'll stay."

"Now wait there just a minute!" Sarge demanded. "If he's going to be staying here, there is one condition."

"Condition." Wash repeated disbelievingly.

"Yes, he has to be on the Red team."

"Why?"

"Your team already has a Freelancer Wash, it wouldn't be fair. Besides, you already have four people, we only have three. And that's only if we count Grif as a soldier."

"Sarge, we only have three soldiers on Blue team." Washington pointed out.

"No, you have Doc too, that makes four" Simmons stated.

Tucker laughed "Oh please, you seriously count Doc as a soldier? And you idiots do remember that the war isn't real right?"

"No, he can stay with the Reds" Washington decided. "They have more room at their base than we have at ours."

The two teams parted ways, the Blues returning to their base to do pretty much nothing while the Reds went to show Penn around his new home.

Director Leonard Church stood on the bridge of his new ship, _The Spirit of Vengeance, _gazing out as the stars before him. He still could not believe it had come to this, once in charge of a promising program with the goal to save humanity from extinction, he was now barely considered better than a criminal. He still remembered how things went from bad to worse, the traitor Washington destroying his facility, being arrested and placed on trial by the UNSC. He had been correct in his beliefs that the courts would be unable to convict him, but the authorities still looked on him with the same attitude as that insufferable chairman. All funding to his project had been cut, his facility and everything else left of the project that the UNSC could get their hands on had been taken. He had managed to acquire a new ship, but it wasn't the same as the _Mother of Invention_. Things were bad, he had fallen far, but he was going to be certain that when he rose again, no one would be able to knock him back down. And he would also make sure that those who had taken so much from him would pay very dearly. All he needed was time, which was one thing he had plenty of.

His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice "Director, our medical team reports that agent Maine has made a full recovery."

The director smiled for the first time in a long while. This was one thing his enemies would not see coming. Agent Maine, dragged to his apparent death beneath freezing waters, still very much alive and every bit as eager for revenge as he was. "Very good councilor, send him here as soon as possible."

As the Councilor went to obey his instructions, the director continued to smile. Yes, he had time and many surprised in store. And he was confident that when the time came, nothing would stand in his way.


	3. Plans to Build and Plans to Betray

The grand tour of Red base lasted about ten minutes. They passed Grifs' room, which had several bullet holes in its door, Simmons' room, which had about fifty different locks (most of them electronic) on the door, Sarges' room, which looked pretty much normal except for several illustrations of Grif dead on the door, and finally they arrived in front of a door with the word Donut written on it.

"This is where you'll be staying" said Sarge. "This room used to belong to Donut"

"Donut?" Penn asked. "Is that a real name?"

Sarge shrugged and opened it, stepping inside, Penn saw a fluffy looking bed with pink sheets and covers, posters of unicorns and several boy bands on the walls, decorated curtains despite the fact that there were no windows, and a stack of fashion magazines.

"So….was Donut a girl?"

"Nope" Sarge replied.

"I see." Penn sighed and put the small amount of belongings he had with him up against one of the walls. He then turned to Sarge. "So, what exactly happened to him?"

Sarge's mood changed immediately, his voice full of bitterness. "Why don't you ask your buddy Washington?"

Understanding what Sarge was implying, he simply stood there, not quite sure what to say. After a long moment of awkward silence, Sarge spoke up once again.

"Cmon, I'll show you the rest of the base."

The rest of the base consisted of a kitchen, and the roof with the man cannon.

"Thanks for showing me around Sarge. It's getting late, I'm going to go get some sleep"

After saying goodnight to the rest of the team, he went to his new room and lied down in the surprisingly comfortable bed. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what Washington had said earlier that day. He had a point, it was safer for two remaining Freelancers to stick together, especially in a place the UNSC didn't care about. But he had grown so accustomed to traveling since he had left the project, staying in one place would take some getting used to.

He sighed as the glowing figure of Iota appeared in front of him.

"What?" He asked, stifling a yawn.

"Agent Penn, do you believe staying here is the best course of action? I see little point in doing so."

"There was little point in what we were doing before, at least now we have company other than just each other."

"True, but are you sure agent Washington can be trusted? You remember the last run in we had with a Freelancer."

"Colorado still worked for the Director. You saw the reports, Washington was arrested for destroying command. Besides, the project is gone now, and Wash is here doing pretty much nothing instead of helping the Director."

"True, but with everything that's happened, he is probably rather paranoid. Maybe he things you work for the Director."

"I, now you're just talking stupid."

"I am sorry. I was merely giving my thoughts."

Penn sighed. "I know. And I understand that you're nervous, but try to relax and think rationally."

Iota nodded and signed off. Penn, who always went to sleep nice and early so he could wake up and get moving early the next day, for once did not feel like sleeping. He felt too energized and his mind refused to calm down and let him sleep. Getting out of bed, he left his room, walked through Red base and went outside. It was just past sunset, making it somewhat dark but light enough to be seen. He walked across the canyon until he was standing on a large rock near the center, overlooking a river. He stared ahead, not really looking at anything, just staring off into space as his mind wandered. His thoughts were cut short almost immediately by a childish sounding voice.

"Hello agent Pencil van!"

Turning, he saw the dark blue one, Caboose, walking towards him. Ignoring the fact that the soldier had gotten his name wrong, he simply replied "Hi."

"What are you doing out here?" the Blue asked.

"I could ask you the same question." The Freelancer replied.

"Okay, ask." Caboose said.

Rolling his eyes beneath his helmet, he asked "What are you doing out here Caboose?"

"Oh, I came to get some parts from Sheila."

"Who?"

"The nice lady in the ship."

"Right…..so she lives in the ship?" he asked.

"No, Sheila is the ship. She used to be a tank, but she moved to the ship and now she can fly."

Penn stood there for a moment, thinking on what Caboose had told him before guessing "Is…Sheila an AI?"

"Yes!"

"So what do you need parts from her for?"

"Well, the Reds have a robot. So I am going to build a robot body for Sheila, then she will live in it, and we will be friends."

Penn started to get annoyed; feeling like Caboose was just making crap up to mess with him. But when he thought about it for a moment, all he heard in the voice of the Blue soldier was sincerity. He sounded almost like a child, and, Penn suspected, might even think like one.

"I see." He said. "And you know how to build robots?"

"Yes! And I'm sure this time there won't be any fires!" he shouted happily.

After making a confused face that was hidden by his helmet, Penn realized he was indeed serious about what he wanted to do. He also realized that there probably was a fire the last time Caboose had tried something like this. Deciding he didn't want the Blue soldier to get hurt, he asked "Would you like some help?"

Caboose jumped up and down with joy "Yes! We can be building buddies!"

Penn couldn't help but laugh at that. "Come on then, let's get to work."

And with that, the two soldiers turned and started towards the crashed Pelican.

Director Church turned at the sound of the doors to the bridge opening, and looked at the hulking figure that stood before him. Agent Maine looked exactly as he had the last time the Director had seen him, the day the Freelancer main facility was destroyed and everything was ruined. The only difference was that Maine no longer had his favorite weapon, a Brute shot. Maine stood there rather docilely, not making any moves towards the Director.

"Agent Maine, it is good to see you're alright. You are probably wondering why you are here."

The only response he received was a growl that he took to be affirmation of his statement.

"I have decided to rebuild project Freelancer, but this time without the damn bureaucrats and politicians in our way. I am going to create a project Freelancer that will produce truly perfect soldiers. I want you to help. Not only will you gain power, you will be given a chance at revenge on the soldiers who nearly killed you. Are you in?"

Maine nodded and growled eagerly.

"Good, for now, go to your quarters; the Counselor will show you where they are. Once you have had the proper time to rest and recover, we can begin."

Maine turned and left the bridge; as the doors closed behind him, a figure stepped out of the shadows. He wore Dark blue mark VI armor with a yellow trim, holding his helmet under his shoulder. He had short, grayish black hair, light brown eyes, and a face that was scorched on its left side. After looking at the door for a moment, he turned to the Director.

"Are you sure using him is a good idea? He's been quite unpredictable in the past."

"He will be useful to us Colorado, he still craves AI units as well as revenge on the same group of soldiers we wish to destroy. He can be trusted to dispose of them. And, with the promise of AIs, he will obey my instructions."

"And when he gets his AIs and decides he no longer needs us?"

The Director smiled darkly. "Agent Colorado, do you honestly believe I will be giving any of those to him? He is a tool, a powerful one that we can exploit effectively. And, when he has done what we need him to, we will destroy him, once and for all. Now, go and retrieve our other friend."

Colorado nodded "Yes, Director." and left the bridge.

The Director turned to once again gaze out at the stars. He understood the concerns Colorado had about Maine. But he was confident that he would not be any trouble. Maine was simply a means to an end, completely expendable. He had two real agents, and would soon begin training more. And soon, very soon, he would be unstoppable.


	4. Schemes and Searches

Penn and Caboose had spent the remainder of the night working on the robotic body for Sheila. They worked fairly well together. Penn knew electronics well and Caboose was able to bring large amounts of parts or particularly heavy ones due to his impressive strength. The more time they spent together, the more Penn became hopelessly confused. He had asked why Sheila had been transferred into a ship and was given a lengthy story about how they thought she was infected by Omega and had shut her down only to discover that she was simply malfunctioning leading to them transferring her to the ship that had landed on top of Donut and had been carrying Grif's sister.

Wisely, he decided not to ask any more questions and they continued in relative silence for about two minutes before Caboose started singing various nursery rhymes. By the time morning came and the other soldiers were awake, Penn and Caboose were still hard at work, and had accomplished a decent amount in one night. Having built legs connected to a torso. Penn figured building and programming the upper half of the robot would take about a week. They were taking a short break in the shade of the Pelican when the other soldiers found them.

Sarge was the first to speak "Penn, just what do you think you're doing fraternizing with the enemy? Or did this dirty Blue sneak into our base in the dead of night and abduct you? Diabolical."

Grif gave an irritated sigh. "Sarge, cmon. The war is fake. I thought you finally accepted that."

"Don't be stupid private Grif! It's obvious that the Blues tricked us into believing the war was fake, to distract us while they waited for another Freelancer! And they even tricked us into letting him into our base! Those evil Blue bastards, their trickery knows no bounds!"

Simmons spoke up "Uh, Sarge? There are a couple of problems with that idea. Like the fact that he didn't kill us when he was in our base with the rest of us asleep, or the fact that they aren't killing us right now."

"Simmons, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about! I would expect Grif to fall for it, but not you! Unless….good lord, you're in on it too!"

"What?"

"The Blues must have brainwashed you to help them! And Grif must have joined them willingly! You have to fight it Simmons!"

"Sarge, I'm pretty sure-"

"Oh my God! Their hold on you is to strong! There is no saving you! I'm the only Red left now! You'll never take me alive!"

With that, Sarge proceeded to flee in the direction of Red base, leaving the rest of the soldiers to look on in disbelief.

Simmons looked at the others "Should we try talking to him?"

Grif shook his head "Are you kidding? This is the funniest thing that's ever happened on our team. I wanna see how this plays out."

Tucker nodded in agreement. "Yeah, this is better than television."

Washington turned to him. "How would you know? None of the T.V.s work out here!"

"That's my point man! We need entertainment!"

Simmons turned towards Red base. "Fuck it, I'm going to go talk to him." He proceeded to run towards Red base, Tucker and Grif following. Thus, two Freelancers and a Blue were left by the Pelican.

Washington immediately said "Listen Penn, I have some questions I've been meaning to ask."

Penn sighed. "Well, I knew this was coming. Go ahead."

"Well, you've been to a lot of places since you left project Freelancer. Did you-"

"Did I find any of the others still alive?"

Washington nodded.

"Well, I had a run in with Colorado, but since he still worked for the Director, that didn't end too well. I wounded him and escaped but I'm pretty sure he survived. I think California might still be alive. The reports say she was killed by simulation troops in outpost 14-A. But I went there after I found out, and none of them had ever heard of her."

"Anyone else?"

"Not that I'm aware of, though I suspect there are others. I really don't think Ohio and Idaho got themselves killed since command was destroyed. They were both listed as AWOL at that time, right?"

"Yes."

"There were a few other agents who were listed as Active or AWOL at the time command was destroyed, odds are they weren't all killed since then."

"Well, what about agents listed as KIA? Do you think any of them faked their deaths like you did?"

Penn hesitated for a moment before replying. "Hard to say, it's possible. But if anyone did, they probably covered their tracks well. I doubt we'll find them any time soon."

Wash's eyes narrowed under his helmet. He had noticed Penn's hesitation and slight increase in voice pitch. Penn was definitely hiding something.

"Agent Pencil, agent Washingtub?"

The two Freelancers in question turned towards Caboose.

"Yes?" asked Wash.

"Can I help you guys play hide and seek with your Freelancer friends?"

"What?" asked Penn.

"You said you can't find them! But I am super good at hide and seek! I can help you find them!"

The two Freelancers stared at Caboose, then looked at each other.

"Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?" Caboose begged.

Penn looked back at the childish soldier and shrugged. "Sure, I'll let you help me."

Director Church stood waiting when Colorado returned to the bridge. This time, the Freelancer was accompanied by another soldier, wearing completely white Mark VI armor and carrying a sniper rifle. The two stood at attention as the director approached them.

"Agent Wyoming, so good of you to finally join us. I assume agent Colorado has informed you that agent Maine has returned to the project as well."

"Yes sir. Though if you ask me, bringing Maine into this is bloody dangerous."

"I am well aware. But as I explained to Colorado, Maine will merely serve as a tool to further our goals. Now, I have a mission for you Wyoming. You and agent Maine will travel to outpost 17-B."

"Why there?"

"There is a group of simulation troopers there that both you and agent Maine have had experience with. The last time Maine encountered them, they were in possession of the Epsilon AI. Epsilon contains data that could bring down our project even further than it already is. And agent Wyoming, Maine must not be allowed to have Epsilon either. If it is necessary, kill him."

"As you wish director. These soldiers, they wouldn't happen to have been formerly stationed at Blood Gulch, would they?"

The Director nodded "Yes they were"

Wyoming smiled under his helmet. "Excellent. I believe those chaps and I have some catching up to do. When do we leave?"

"You will leave first thing tomorrow. Go and inform agent Maine. Dismissed."

As Wyoming exited the bridge, the Director turned his attention to Colorado, who had remained silent through the exchange.

"Sir, are you sure it is wise to the two of them? Wyoming is certainly capable, but if Maine decides he wants Epsilon for himself, I am not sure Wyoming can stop him."

"Your concerns are noted agent, but I have my reasons for sending Maine, and I will not change my mind. Besides, you should focus on your own mission."

Uncertainty flashed across Colorado's face. "Right, my mission. You still haven't told me what it is"

"Patience, you will be given your briefing after Wyoming and Maine have left on their mission"

"Understood sir."

"Very good, dismissed."

Colorado saluted and exited the bridge, leaving the Director alone once more to his thoughts. He currently had three skilled agents preparing for missions that would greatly advance his plans. Assuming they survived, Colorado and Wyoming would continue to serve as agents of the new Project Freelancer. Maine would most likely be disposed of after the mission unless he could think of some other use for him. He was perfectly convinced that Maine and Wyoming would successfully complete their mission, but even if they failed, so long as Colorado succeeded on his, everything would progress as planned.

It had been rather easy deciding who to send on that mission. Maine was out of the question due to the need for subtlety. And due to Wyoming's prior experience with both AI, and the soldiers who possessed Epsilon, he was an obvious choice to hunt them down. That left Colorado with a mission that would decide the future of project Freelancer.

The residents of Valhalla (minus Sarge) stood in front of Red base, which Sarge had barricaded. Or, they did, until Sarge began throwing grenades at them and they relocated to Blue base.

"Alright" Penn started. "As I was trying to say, Caboose, Wash and I are going to search for any other surviving Freelancers."

"Wait, more of them?" asked Doc. "How is this a good idea?"

"Look, we don't expect you to want to help us" Wash replied. "But they're our friends, if they're alive, we want to find them."

"Right, despite the fact that at least half of them will probably shoot on sight" Tucker commented sarcastically.

"Like Wash said, we don't expect your help." Penn reiterated. "But we are going. If you want to come, you can. But if you'd rather stay here, that's fine too." He walked over to the Warthog and a pair of Mongooses Sarge had somehow repaired overnight and began tying bags and the half-finished robot body Caboose had begged him to bring to the Warthog.

Wash looked at the medic and simulation troopers "So, what are you going to do?"

"Fuck it, I'll come" Simmons said bitterly. "Beats sitting around here with an insane Sarge and two lazy dickheads."

"I'll come too, you could use my medical experience" Doc said. The pair walked over to the Warthog while Tucker and Grif did not move.

"So that's it then?" asked Wash. "Okay, have fun being alone with your insane friend, hope he doesn't kill you in your sleep."

With that, he went over to the Warthog with the others, leaving Grif and Tucker standing and thinking about what he had just said.

"On second thought, we'll come too!" Tucker shouted as he ran towards them.

"Yeah, you could probably use the help." Grif agreed as he followed.

A few minutes later, everyone was packed and in their vehicles. Wash was driving the Warthog, with Caboose riding shotgun and Penn manning the turret. Grif was driving one Mongoose with Tucker on the back, while Simmons drove the the other with Doc on the back. They all took one last look at Valhalla before driving off to begin their search.


	5. Campfires and Confessions

The group had not travelled far, with Caboose having to use the bathroom every few minutes. Eventually the irritated group decided to set up camp for the night, and hopefully make it further the next day. They had quickly unpacked sleeping bags and set up a campfire. Most of the group fell asleep rather quickly, but Penn, feeling restless, quietly got up and walked away from the others.

He wound up sitting on a large rock nearby, looking up at the sky. He sighed to himself as he thought on the mission he was undertaking. Did he seriously expect to find any of the others? Odds were the majority of them were dead, and the others would make sure they weren't found.

A snapping twig pulled him out of his thoughts, and he shot up to his feet, and turned, rifle in hand, towards the sound. He lowered it upon recognizing Washingtons' armor.

"What is it Wash?" he asked, somewhat annoyed.

"I wanted to see if you're alright, you're out here by yourself." He replied.

Penn snickered "Ah, the guy who lectures me for being sentimental is checking if I'm okay." He nodded. "I'm fine Wash, just thinking."

"Okay, about what?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Because whatever it is, it's clearly bothering you." Wash retorted, starting to sound irritated.

Penn sighed "I'm just…not sure how this mission is going to work out. Do you honestly think we'll find anybody?"

` Washington shrugged "I honestly don't know, but I think we will."

"What makes you say that?" Penn questioned.

"The fact that even after everyone went different ways, we all still keep running into each other."

Penn nodded, Wash had a point. Since he had deserted, he'd had run-ins with Maine and Colorado, and eventually found Washington purely by chance. And based on the reports he and Iota had heard, Washington had run into several of the others as well. Washington could well be right, but the way most of those encounters ended did not make Penn overly optimistic.

"I guess you're right" he said finally, "We're bound to find someone. I just hope they'll be happy to see us."

"Well, if they aren't, it's two on one" Wash pointed out.

"Fair enough" Penn said, not wanting to think about having to kill another Freelancer. He sat back down on the rock, staring back up at the sky, though he was aware Wash had made no move to leave yet. Not really wanting to go through another round of questions, he nonetheless turned to face him. "So, what's on your mind Wash?"

Washington didn't answer immediately, seeming to consider how best to phrase whatever he was about to say. "When we talked earlier, and I asked you if any Freelancers who were listed as KIA, might have faked their deaths, you hesitated before answering."

Penn nodded, painfully aware of where Wash was going with this. He should have known Wash would bring this up, he had always been a terrible liar.

"What aren't you telling me?" Wash questioned.

Penn hesitated, trying to decide whether or not he should be truthful.

"Penn, come on. If we're going to be working together, you're going to have to trust me."

Penn thought it over, and decided he could trust Wash, and if he wanted Wash to trust him, he couldn't keep secrets.

"I know where one of the others is. . ."

"You do?!" Wash practically shouted in surprise. "Who?"

"New Jersey" Penn replied.

"Your little sister? She's alive?" Washington asked, clearly shocked. "But how?"

"The mission command thought she died on was shortly before I left the project." Penn explained. "At the time, both of us were one a mission to small outpost with the objective of seeking out and destroying Insurrection forces. It was at the same time you and your team had been sent to retrieve C.T.s armor. After we had taken the outpost, we found a computer terminal. Command had asked us to bring back any intel we could recover, so we went through the files stored on the computer. As we did, well, we realized there was good reason the Insurrection was fighting the project. We found out about all the laws the Director was breaking, the crimes he was committing. We suddenly understood why C.T. had joined them. But we also realized that both the Insurrection and C.T. were doomed. We knew your team would be successful on your mission. Still, at that moment we decided we couldn't be a part of the project anymore."

"So then, why did YOU come back from that mission?" Wash demanded. "Why didn't you fake your death like she did?"

Penn rolled his eyes beneath his helmet. "There was no way the Director would believe we were both killed during that mission. As it was, I had a hard time convincing him even one of us died. And it was even harder to convince him that I had left her behind."

"I'd wondered about that too" Wash admitted," It didn't seem like you to leave someone, especially your own sister, behind."

"Like I said, it was hard."

"BOW CHICKA BOW WOW!" came Tuckers' voice from the camp, followed by the sounds of the others telling him to shut up.

Both Freelancers glared in the direction of the camp briefly, before Wash looked at Penn and said "Alright, so your sister is alive. Anything else you've been keeping a secret?"

"Well….there is one thing." Penn admitted. "Come on out Ota."

There was a red flash, and Iota appeared on his shoulder, looking at Washington.

"You…you have an AI?" Wash asked in disbelief.

Penn nodded "Yes, this is Iota."

Washington just stared at the tiny glowing figure for several seconds before shaking his head "That's not possible, Carolina had Iota."

"No, she didn't" Penn replied. "She only had Eta."

"She had two AIs Penn" Wash said.

"No, she only had Eta. The Director never told anybody other than me, except for the Councilor."

"How did he do it?" Wash asked. "It sure has hell looked like she had two AIs, we even saw her have two chips implanted."

"It was an odd idea the director had." Penn admitted. "When Carolina demanded two AIs, the Director ran some calculations. He determined that a human mind would be unable to take multiple AIs and still function properly. But, he also knew Carolina would not accept that as an excuse. So, he made some adjustments to Eta. He pretty much split its programming in half, transferring half of it to a second chip. If both chips were implanted in someone's head, they could communicate with one another, thus allowing Eta to function. Also, when Eta actually physically appeared, there would appear to be two AI as a result of the chips communicating with each other. You didn't notice how similar they looked? Or how they actually seemed to join together into one entity? It also kept Carolina fooled, since she mistook the communications between the halves of one AI for the conversations between two."

"But wait," Wash said, "I was next on the list for implantation, how come Iota wasn't given to me then?"

"For two reasons. One, the Director didn't want his trick discovered. If an AI named Iota was assigned to you, you and your team would have figured it out immediately. And two, the Director believed Epsilon would be a more powerful AI, so he felt it better assigned to one of the higher ranking agents."

"And since you were of lower rank, the Director knew your interaction with us would be limited, but why you specifically?"

"He found me trustworthy. I've always been a pretty loyal person. The only agent he had more trust in at the time was Florida, and since he interacted with you and your team fairly often, he thought it would be of lower risk to give Iota to me. He also instructed me that any time I had any interaction with your team, I was to have Iota offline and not mention him."

Washington nodded. "Makes sense. And none of us ever found out."

Penn shook his head. "Actually, one of you did."

"Who?"

"Texas, but that's a story for another time. Is there anything else you want to know?" Penn asked, hoping Wash would say no. He was getting tired and really wanted to just go back to his sleeping bag and get some sleep.

"Just one, do you know where your sister is?"

Penn nodded "Yes. I assume you want me to take you there."

"Yes, I think she should come with us. Even if she's avoided detection this long, staying in one place is dangerous, I think she'll be safer with us."

Penn thought about it then shrugged "I have been meaning to visit."

The Reds and Blues sat around the campfire, none of them able to get back to sleep after Tucker had woken them. Grif and Simmons were bickering like normal, Tucker was yelling at Caboose, who kept whining at him to read him a bedtime story, and Doc was trying to get everybody to calm down and hug it out. A flashbang thrown in the middle of the group shut them up, after they were done screaming and cursing of course, and they turned to the returning Freelancers.

"All of you, get some rest" Washington told them. "We have a busy day tomorrow."

"Why?" asked Simmons. "Isn't it just going to be another day of driving?"

"Or did you guys actually find something?" Grif asked in a bored tone.

"We did" Penn answered "My sister, agent New Jersey."

"A chick?" Tucker asked, sounding excited. "Alright!"

Penn was about to yell at Tucker to stay away from his sister, when Caboose said something.

"Umm..mister Pencil, you have a glowing person on your shoulder. High mister glowing person!"

"Hello," Iota replied "I am Iota."

"Oh great, another one of those damn AIs." Grif groaned.

"Don't worry, Iotas fine" Wash assured him before leaning over and whispering to Penn "He is fine right?"

"Of course" Penn nodded. "Now everybody, get some sleep."

"But, mister Pencil!" shouted Caboose. "I still want to hear a bedtime story."

Penn sighed "Fine, I will read you a bedtime story, but you have to promise to go to sleep after, okay?"

Caboose nodded eagerly, and Penn sat down. Caboose handed him a book, which Penn opened and read.

"Once upon a time…"

Not long after, everybody was asleep, and when the next day came, they were all well rested, though they were also all nervous about how their meeting with New Jersey would turn out.


	6. Out With a Bang

Wyoming looked through the scope of his sniper rifle, searching for signs of movement in the canyon. Other than the occasional discharges from the top of the bases, there was nothing. Lowering his rifle, he turned to face his companion. Maine was clearly impatient; Wyoming knew this despite the fact that he couldn't read the other Freelancers' expression through his helmet. He could sympathize, he wanted revenge on the simulation troopers just as much as Maine did.

"No sign of them." Wyoming stated, putting the sniper rifle on his back and taking out his battle rifle. "Though one of the bases is barricaded, maybe those chaps are hiding in there."

Maine immediately let out a growl, pulling out his assault rifle and charging down into the canyon, instantly heading for Red base. Wyoming simply strolled down calmly, keeping his eyes peeled for any sort of ambush. By the time he reached the center of the canyon, Maine had already made it to the base, observing the barricades. Wyoming calmly walked over to the large Freelancer.

"I think they're hiding out in there" he said. "Not smart of them, they're trapped. Then again, these lads were never bright. Here's what we'll do, you break through this entrance while I take the other. We attack at the same time, thirty seconds. Sync?"

Main hissed an affirmative just before a grenade landed between them. The pair quickly dove out of the way in opposite directions, avoiding the blast. Wyoming was on his feet immediately, pointing his battle rifle upwards as he looked to the top of the base. Standing there, shotgun in hand, was the red Sergeant.

"You dirty Freelancers better get away from my base!" Sarge yelled.

"Well, what do you know? At least one of the idiots is still here after all" Wyoming commented.

"I may be the last Red, but I can still kick some major ass!"

"You're the last Red? Where is the rest of your squad?" Wyoming questioned.

"Those traitors are working with the dirty Blues now! Far away! Probably afraid. They knew even with two Freelancers helping them, they had no chance against me."

"Two Freelancers?"

"Yes, in league with those dirty Blues, working to destroy the glorious Red team! But they failed! I'm still here, and I won Valhalla!"

Wyoming chuckled as Maine shifted and growled, the mention of other Freelancers clearly interesting him. Wyoming had to admit that he was interested as well.

"So, who were these other Freelancers those other chaps were working with?" he asked.

"That no good Washington and that Pennsylvania guy!"

Maine let out a loud growl, pointing his assault rifle up at Sarge. Wyoming motioned for him to lower it, which he did after letting out a hiss in Wyomings' direction.

"Do you know where they went?"

Sarge shrugged and pointed "They were travelling in that direction, go kill them if you like. Just get away from my base!"

Maine growled, clearly tired of listening to the Red idiot. Wyoming nodded in his direction, and Maine instantly ran up the wall of the base, Wyoming doing the same. When they reached the top, Sarge had stepped back and aimed at Maine. He fired, but Maine simply kept coming, delivering a hard punch to the face that sent Sarge flying into the barricade he had put at the back entrance. He collided and fell, rolling down the ramp into the base. Maine turned to Wyoming, who pulled out a grenade. He threw it down into the base, Maine charging in after the explosion. Wyoming followed seconds later, the two standing inside, no sign of Sarge to be found.

The two of them began searching the rooms, ransacking Simmons' as well as Donuts' before a noise behind them caused them to turn. Standing before them was Sarge, holding a weapon Wyoming recognized. Maine clearly recognized it as well because he instantly charged at Sarge, who fired the weapon, hitting the hulking Freelancer in the chest and knocking him onto his back. Sarge ran towards the disoriented Freelancer, raising the weapon to impale him with it. Wyoming quickly pulled out his knife and stepped in front of Maine, using it to block the strike.

He immediately followed with a punch to Sarges' face, knocking the red back. He then hurled the knife, hitting Sarge in the shoulder. The Red dropped the weapon, clutching his shoulder and staggering. Maine meanwhile, had gotten back to his feet. He grabbed the Brute shot off the ground and bashed Sarge in the face with it, knocking him flat on his back. The fallen Red did not move. Maine took aim with his Brute shot, clearly wanting to make sure his foe was dead.

"No, don't waste your ammo on this idiot" He instructed. "If he was telling the truth, we'll need it later."

Maine nodded and turned to face Wyoming, grunting a question.

"I don't know, the Director may want him alive. At the very least he will likely want the armor and AI."

Maine growled in protest, causing Wyoming to smile under his helmet.

"But of course, the Director likely doesn't know he is alive. So, if we were to kill Penn and you were to take his AI, how would he know?"

Maine made what sounded vaguely like laughter, and Wyoming suspected he was grinning under his helmet.

"Alright old chap, let's search this base for supplies. Then, we'll go find our old friends."

The group had made good time, despite Caboose having to stop to pee with some frequency. Their trip had been mostly silent, with the majority of the soldiers thinking on the upcoming event. The only exception was Caboose, who kept asking if they were there yet. Finally, they made it to a rundown building in a wooded area. Washington and Penn immediately got out and walked towards it.

Washington wouldn't admit it, but he was nervous. Meeting with another Freelancer was always a dangerous experience. Penn thought New Jersey would be fine, but Wash was sure to keep his guard up. He remembered very little about New Jersey, which caused him further worry. From what he could tell, the simulation troops were afraid, with the exception of Tucker, who seemed eager, much to the annoyance of Penn.

The green Freelance stepped forward, seeming really not worried. Wash half expected him do get shot while his guard was down, but nothing happened. New Jersey might now even be aware they were here, Wash decided.

He quickly realized differently when an object landed in the middle of the group. Wash and Penn immediately jumped out of the way, as did Tucker and Simmons. The others yelled in pain and irritation as the flash bang went off.

Looking in the direction the grenade had come from, Wash spotted a soldier in Mark VI armor. It was dark blue, with a light green trim. In her hands she held a sniper rifle, and on her back he thought he could spy a rocket launcher.

As she started walking towards them, he took aim at her with his battle rifle. Penn placed a hand on it and lowered it, stepping forward towards his sister.

"Take is easy Jersey" he told her, "It's me."

"Penn? What are you doing here?" She questioned.

"Long story" He replied.

Wyoming and Maine stood in the middle of the canyon next to their vehicles. The Director has given them each a standard issue Mongoose for transportation, and Wyoming hoped they would be able to catch up with the simulation troops and the rogue Freelancers.

"Alright, I've managed to pick up some heat signatures. We should be able to find them if we move before the trail goes cold." Wyoming informed Maine.

The other Freelancer climbed onto his Mongoose and growled impatiently. Wyoming climbed onto his own vehicle and drove off, Maine right behind him.

"Makes sense to me" Jersey stated after Penn and Washington finished talking. They had made quick introductions before telling her what was going on.

"So, you'll come with us?" Penn asked hopefully.

Jersey shrugged "I've been getting tired of this place anyway, it's pretty boring. But going on a manhunt for other Freelancers sounds exciting." She turned and went inside the building, emerging a few minutes later wearing a backpack and riding a Mongoose. "So, where do we go from here?"

"No idea" Penn replied, and Washington sighed.

"Wonderful, back to having no trail and no idea where to start" he complained.

"Do you have any suggestions Wash?" Penn countered.

"We could go home" Grif suggested.

"You mean to your box canyon and your insane commanding officer?" Penn questioned.

"Well when you put it like that it sounds like a stupid idea"

"Because it is!"

"Look, everybody calm down" Wash told them. "Let's just camp here for the night, we can make plans in the morning."

"Good idea, hey Jersey, wanna share a sleeping bag with me?" Tucker asked, promptly earning a punch in the back of the head from Penn.

New Jersey laughed as Tucker cursed and held the back of his head. "No thanks" She proceeded to go set up her sleeping bag far away from Tucker.

Wyoming and Maine had been driving for hours, but the trail was getting warmer, they were definitely getting close. Wyoming soon pulled his vehicle over, and Maine did the same.

"There are several people in the clearing up ahead" he said to Maine, who nodded, pulling his Brute Shot off his back.

"Washington and those chaps from Blood Gulch can die, but Penn might be useful. He's no fan of the Director, so we may be able to convince him to join us."

Maine growled in protest, and Wyoming turned to him "Even if you don't get Penns' AI, the Director told me he is working on acquiring several. So, with Penn to help us, we can get those AI for ourselves. I take one, you take the rest. Sound good mate?"

Maine was silent for a moment, then nodded with a short grunt.

"Good, are you ready?"

Maine nodded and charged into the clearing, Wyoming right behind him. The soldiers there immediately reacted, though in the case of the simulation troops the reaction was panic. Washington and Penn were immediately up, their rifles trained on Maine. They fired, and the massive Freelancer dived to avoid them. Wyoming took aim at Washington with his battle rifle and fired, missing by less than an inch.

Washington turned and dropped to one knee, doing so causing Wyomings' next shot to go harmlessly above his head. He fired and managed to land a glancing blow on the shoulder of the white Freelancer. Maine, meanwhile, was on his feet and charging at Penn, who put his rifle onto his back and got into a fighting position. Maine quickly halted and turned to Washington, firing at him while his attention was on Wyoming. A pair of blasts hit Washington in the back, sending him sprawling on the ground.

Penn yelled in shock and anger, charging the massive Freelancer. Maine fired once with his Brute Shot, but Penn ducked under the blast. He reached Maine and leapt into the air, landing a jump kick in his face, sending him flying onto his back. Penn quickly pulled his battle rifle off of his back and took aim at the face of the disoriented Freelancer. Wyoming quickly pulled out his sniper rifle and shot the weapon out of Penns' hands.

"Come now old chap, stop fighting. I just want to talk" Wyoming told him as he slowly walked towards him. Maine got to his feet and growled at Penn, but at hearing what Wyoming had said, he slowly backed away.

"Oh, you want to talk? Attacking me and shooting my friend is a funny way to start a conversation." Penn snarled. He turned towards the group "Doc, help Wash!" The medic ran to Washingtons' side, and Penn turned back to Wyoming "Talk fast."

"Alright then. Maine and I plan to take down the Director, and we would like your help."

Penn snorted "Right, you want to take down the Director."

"Why wouldn't we? He's nearly gotten us both killed, and plans to betray Maine if he returns from our mission alive. He is also in possession of certain items we want."

Penn shook his head "You mean the Director has more AI, and you two want them."

"That's right. I lost Gamma some time ago, and Maine lost all of his AI. I think we're owed replacements."

"And I think you're out of your mind to ask for my help. Especially for him to ask for my help" he said while jerking his head in Maines' direction. "I usually don't work with people who tried to hunt me down and kill me."

"It's all in the past old chap. When we get all of the AI the Director has, Maine won't much care about yours."

"You're a fool if you believe that" Penn said. "And you can forget it, I won't work with you."

"Well then, I suppose Maine will be getting an AI here after all. Go ahead Maine, we don't need him alive."

Maine let out an eager growl and ran towards Penn as Wyoming aimed at the green Freelancers' head. Suddenly, a rocket struck Maine in his side and sent him flying. Wyoming turned to see New Jersey standing with a rocket launcher, now aimed at him.

"Jersey, how are you my dear?" Wyoming asked, then ducked under a rocket aimed at his head. "Glad to hear it." He was suddenly struck in the side of his head and knocked onto his side by Penn.

A growl was all that alerted Penn before Maine tackled him to the ground. The larger Freelancer pinned him and began punching him repeatedly.

"Iota, activate strength enhancement!" Penn shouted. The AI complied, and with strength coursing through his suit, he hurled Maine off of him. As the Meta landed on his back on the ground, Wyoming took aim at Jersey after avoiding another rocket. Just as he was about to make a perfect headshot, he heard a voice.

"Hey, asshole!" Wyoming turned, and a plasma grenade hit him in the chest, sticking to his armor. He saw Tucker standing about ten feet from him, and he knew the Blue was probably grinning under his helmet. "Looks like you're about to go out with a bang, Bow Chicka Bow wow!"

The grenade exploded and Wyoming flew backwards to the ground, not moving. Maine rose to his feet again, and Penn delivered an enhanced punch to his face, knocking him flat. This was followed by a rocket blast from Jersey, and the large Freelancer stopped moving.

As the other soldiers stood over the two motionless Freelancers, Penn looked at the group. "Well, I guess we'd better get moving." The others nodded in agreement, and they loaded onto their vehicles. Washington was unconscious, but Doc was confident he would make it. Leaving the two defeated Freelancers behind, the group drove off.


	7. Voices

The first thing Maine felt as he regained consciousness was pain. The sensation had become rather familiar to him lately, and he did not like it. For a while he had only faint memories of what pain was, memories of the battle on the highway, fighting with Texas for the first time, but those had been many years ago. Then Washington and those damn simulation troopers had started hunting him and suddenly he had a very rude reminder of what pain felt like.

Thinking of this brought another feeling to Maine, anger. Not just anger at Washington, who had once been his friend and was now his most hated enemy, but also anger at his the AI, Sigma in particular. How many times had that damned AI told him they were invincible, unstoppable?

Just thinking of Sigma, Maine could hear his voice. Despite the AI being gone since the battle at Command, echoes of Sigma still filled his mind, as side effect of sharing and having his mind dominated by the rampant AI for so long. Maine could almost see the flaming shape hovering in front of him, focusing on him with his holographic eyes.

"Come one Maine, get moving" Sigma seemed to say. "You can't give up now."

Maines' irritation grew as he stared at the AI that was not really there. All those years of his voice in his head, convincing him to turn on his friends, dominating his mind and using him as a puppet to collect all of those other damned AI, and even when he was gone, he would not leave Maine alone.

"Find them all Maine, we must be reunited" Sigma persisted. "Go now, no more wasting time!"

Maine growled in anger and punched the spot he imagined the AI to be, and he could swear he heard laughter as the image vanished. Getting to his feet, he noticed Wyoming on the ground not far away. He looked to be in even worse shape than he was, and as he began to approach him, he heard the voice again.

"He doesn't matter Maine, all that matters is finding the AI."

Shaking his head to be rid of the voice, he continued towards Wyoming and kneeled at his side. Pulling out one of the med kits he had been supplied with, he went to work trying to help the other wounded Freelancer.

It felt odd to Maine, wasting time helping someone else. Sure, he had cared about his fellow agents back when he was part of Project Freelancer, but after he had left he had lost that. He had not cared about Carolina, who he had nearly died protecting before, when he ripped the AI from her head and hurled her off a cliff. He had not cared about North when he killed him and stole Theta, nor South when he had attacked her to steal Delta (although he had never been particularly fond of South). And he certainly felt no remorse when he killed Texas, he had always hated her and that had not changed.

So it seemed odd to be helping Wyoming. He had not bothered to aid Washington whenever he had been injured during their partnership hunting for Epsilon. Then again, Wyoming had never tried to hunt down and kill him. Wyoming had always been one of the Freelancers he had gotten along best with. And with Sigma gone (sort of) he was more of his old self.

Satisfied that Wyoming would pull through, Maine sat down to wait for him to wake up. When he did, they would resume their hunt. And this time, they would not fail.

The Reds, Blues, and Freelancers had travelled far after the battle, determined to put as much distance between them and their enemies as possible. Finally, after many hours of travel, they pulled off at the edge of the woods and set up camp. Caboose immediately ran behind a tree to use the bathroom since nobody had allowed him to take a pee break during their flight from the battlefield. Grif immediately went to sleep without helping set up camp, much to the annoyance of Simmons. The rest of the group hastily got out sleeping bags and tossed them to their respective owner. Deciding they should take watches, Jersey volunteered to go first, and everybody else went to sleep.

Everybody else, that is, except for the light Blue one, Tucker, she thought his name was. As soon as Penn and Washington had gone to sleep, he had gotten up and walked right over to her. She hadn't had much time to form an opinion of him, or any others in the group for that matter. Besides his earlier attempt to hit on her, the only other thing she saw of him was when he stuck Wyoming with a grenade. She had to admit, she was impressed by that, as well as grateful for it. The simulation soldier had saved her life.

So, when he walked up to her and greeted her by saying "Sup girl?" she decided she would try to tolerate him.

"Hello….Tucker, right?" she greeted.

He nodded "Yep, that's the name, but you can call me lover."

Jersey snorted "I'll just call you Tucker, thanks."

"As long as you call me" Tucker replied, causing her to snort again and his weak pickup attempts. He proceeded to take a seat next to her and looked in the same direction as her. "So, you think they'll come after us?"

"Were it anyone other than those two, I would say no. But I seriously doubt we've seen the last of them" she answered.

Tucker sighed "Yeah, never did stay dead. Fucking asshole would never leave us alone."

"So you've met him before?" Jersey questioned.

Tucker nodded. "Yeah, back when I was stationed in Blood Gulch, also known as the shittiest place in the universe. He was trying to kill me."

"But you're still alive, how did you manage that?" she asked with genuine interest.

"I'm just that much of a badass" Tucker replied nonchalantly, though when Jersey just stared at him he shrugged. "I had some help, mostly from Church and Tex."

"Hold on, Tex? You mean like agent Texas?"

"Well, I call her Bitchpants mccrabby, but yeah, her."

"How the hell did you get her to help you?" she asked in disbelief. She hadn't really known Tex, but she did know that Texas didn't just go around helping anyone.

"She owed me a favor" he explained. "Me Church and Caboose rescued her from the Red Team."

"And how exactly did she manage to get captured?" she asked in the same disbelieving tone. For any Freelancer to get captured by simulation troopers was far-fetched, but the top Freelancer in the project? That was insane.

"I have no fucking idea how those idiots managed to pull that off, but somehow they did. So, for rescuing her, she owed us favors. And I agreed that if she helped me get rid of Wyoming, we'd be square."

"Well, judging by the fact that he's still alive…I'm guessing that didn't work out."

"Nope, I stabbed that fucker through the chest and he's still alive. He had some stupid time thing he used to save himself whenever he was about to die, we killed the original, and we thought all the copies, but looks like we missed one."

"Well that last one got messed up pretty bad thanks to you" she reminded him. "Nice job. He was about to take my head off. I never did thank you for stopping him."

"Well, if you wanna thank me, you could always-"

"No" she cut him off and smirked in amusement under her helmet. He was persistent, she would give him that. "But I will say it. Thank you."

Tucker was silent for a moment then said "You're welcome. You know, you're probably my favorite Freelancer."

"And why's that?"

"Well, the other ones I know are either insane or total bitches, and even Wash and Penn can kind of be assholes."

She nodded "The Freelancers aren't the nicest group."

"You seem pretty good."

She shrugged "Nobody I'm enemies with would say that. But you and I are on the same team, at least for now, so you don't have to worry about me being a bitch unless you piss me off."

"You aren't as easy to piss off as your brother are you?"

She chuckled "Well, if you're that curious, go ahead and try to piss me off. That is, if you're not afraid of what I'd do if I got pissed."

"I'm good" he assured her.

"Glad to hear it. Now go get some rest. I imagine we'll have a long day tomorrow." Her tone made it clear that this was an order and not a suggestion. Tucker was either smart enough not to argue, or simply too tired to do so, as he went to his sleeping bag without a word while Jersey continued her watch.

Groaning caught Maines' attention, and he turned to see Wyoming struggling to sit. He got to his feet and walked over to the newly awoken Freelancer, holding out a hand to help him up.

"Maine, glad to see you're okay old chap. Those idiots get away?"

Maine let out a confirming hiss as he helped Wyoming to his feet. The wounded Freelancer thanked him and staggered towards the spot where they had parked their vehicles, falling to his knees after a few steps.

"Maybe we should recover a bit before we go after them" Wyoming suggested.

Despite the voice in his mind telling him not to waste any more time, Maine nodded in agreement. They were both badly hurt and they both knew it. They both also knew that if they fought the others now, they would lose badly. So, Maine decided, they would wait until they regained their strength. Then, they would hunt them down. And then, they would kill them.


	8. Recovering Two

Colorado observed the building from a distance. Run down and decrepit looking, most people would not have guessed that it was a former Freelancer outpost. Even fewer would have guessed what sort of important equipment was kept there.

That was no sign of movement from the outpost did not put Colorado at ease. He moved towards the ruined building cautiously, keeping an eye on his motion tracker as well as looking around in every direction as he made his approach. He reached the entrance without seeing a single sign of life, and slipped inside.

That was where he saw the bodies.

Soldiers lie dead all over the floor. The outpost was rather small, so he quickly figured out that there had been three dozen of them. They were not project Freelancer soldiers, their armor marked them as soldiers of the UNSC. It had been expected that when the project had come under investigation, an investigation that had grown in intensity since the arrest of the Director following the destruction of command, that UNSC forces would go to investigate every base they could locate.

Colorado briefly wondered if these soldiers had found anything, but decided it really did not matter, seeing as they were now dead and could not do anything with information they might have gathered here. Keeping his eyes peeled, Colorado approached the computer terminal, the only thing of any real use in the outpost. He began entering various codes to access what he needed, when he caught something on his motion tracker.

Spinning around and drawing his assault rifle, he heard footsteps approaching him, but saw nothing. Though, his motion tracker made it very clear that somebody was there. This was confirmed a few moments later when there was a brief shimmer, and the person deactivated their cloaking.

She wore yellow ODST armor with a red trim. In each hand, she held a pistol, both of which were aimed at Colorados' visor. She also had a sniper rifle on her back, and he knew from experience she was very accurate with it. Inside of his helmet, Colorado gulped. There were very few people, even among the Freelancers, who he felt any fear of. One of those few people was standing directly in front of him, weapons aimed at his face.

Agent California lowered the pistols and walked slowly towards him. Colorado lowered his own weapon as she approached. He heard her giggle a bit beneath her helmet at this, and he rolled his eyes beneath his own helmet.

"Really Colorado, pulling a gun on a lady without even saying hello, and here I thought you had class" she joked as she stopped in front of him.

"And I thought you would know better than to sneak up on me" he replied, turning his back on his former teammate and refocusing his attention on the computer terminal.

The yellow Freelancer shrugged. "Excuse me for having some fun. I've been pretty bored here since I killed all of those UNSC soldiers. I'd hoped they'd send more to investigate, but alas, they did not. So I've been sitting around here playing guard for an empty base."

"Not completely empty" he reminded her, referring to the terminal.

"Might as well be" she replied, leaning her back against it boredly "Damn thing doesn't even get internet."

"You were supposed to be defending valuable equipment, not updating your blog."

"Oh, bite me. You're doing that wrong by the way" she pushed him aside, hit a few quick commands into the terminal, and a hatch in a nearby wall opened up. She began to walk over when she heard Colorado ask a question in an annoyed tone.

"Why didn't you just do that when I got here?" he demanded as he followed her.

"Wanted to see if you'd figure it out on your own." She reached into the hatch and pulled out a small case. "I should have known that was expecting too much of you" she mocked.

Growling beneath his helmet, he did not reply. He knew if he said anything to make her angry enough, well, he wouldn't be able to take her if they got into a fight. Instead, he simply held out a hand and waited for her to hand him the case.

"The Director told you what's in here, right?" California asked.

"Yes."

"Then you know how important it is that this package makes it to him."

"Yes."

"And you know there can't be any screw-up's, if you botch this-"

"I know! Just give me the damn case, bitch!"

California said nothing, just staring at him. For a moment, Colorado was worried she would attack him, but after a few seconds she silently handed him the case. She walked right past him without another word, and went to the terminal, staring intently up at it. Turning around, Colorado quickly realized why.

The terminal was flashing, and a message was filling the screen. Recovery beacons had gone off. But, he knew that part wasn't what had California interested, it was the agents that beacons belonged to.

"Maine and Wyoming?" she asked in disbelief "Aren't they dead?"

"No" Colorado informed her. "They're alive, and the Director somehow managed to find them and get them to rejoin the project. They were assigned to some important mission. But, I guess we can see how well that went."

California turned from the Terminal and started running toward the entrance of the outpost.

"Where are you going?!" Colorado demanded.

California stopped, but didn't turn to look at him, she simply called over her shoulder.

"I'm going to help them. Whatever they're doing is important, and we really can't afford to lose any more Freelancers at this point. I'll contact the Director once I find them. Well, them or their bodies."

With that, she ran outside, towards a Mongoose that was parked nearby. Hopping on it, she quickly drove off, leaving Colorado alone with the case he had come to retrieve. As he watched her depart, he felt a rising irritation. California had always gotten on his nerves, but ever since the break in onboard the _Mother of Invention _years ago, her attitude had gotten far worse. Luckily, he had gone a long time without seeing her, since she had been assigned to watch over the outpost after the destruction of command. But, with this outpost no longer needed, he feared she would become an active part of missions again. And he dreaded having to work with her.

Deciding to worry about that later, he returned to the terminal and proceeded to wipe all of the data from it. Once that was complete, he went outside and hopped into the Warthog he had been given for the mission. Setting the case in the passenger seat, he drove off towards the rendezvous point where he would receive transport back to the _Spirit of Vengeance. _

The group was still in the same spot they had set up camp the previous night, though many were unhappy with this, especially Grif.

"So let me get this straight, we're going to stay here, you know, stop moving, when we're being chased by two psychotic Freelancers?" he had asked.

"What the hell do you care?" Simmons asked. "I thought you'd love just sitting around doing nothing."

"You know what I'd love even more Simmons? Not dying!"

"And I would love a cookie!" shouted Caboose.

"Shut up, Caboose!" Grif and Simmons shouted together.

"Would all of you be quiet?!" Washington yelled. "You're giving me a headache!"

"Wash, how is that different than what they do every other day?" Tucker asked.

"That isn't the point! The point is we are in a dangerous situation, and I'm going to need you all to use your heads right now!"

Everybody paused and stared at him.

"And I realized just what I was asking as soon as it came out of my mouth" Washington muttered.

"You know what my head is telling me right now?" Grif asked.

"To go take a nap?" Washington guessed.

"Besides that. It's telling me waiting around here for them to catch us is fucking stupid."

"I hate to say it, but Grif has a point" Simmons said. "We're just giving them a chance to catch up with us."

"Look, you should all know by now that there isn't any running from these two" Washington reminded them. "Maine and Wyoming are going to catch up eventually. So, let's just wait here for them to show up, we'll be well rested and ready to fight, okay?"

"You had me at well rested" Grif said and went to go take a nap.

"Agent Washingtub, where is agent Pencil Van?" Caboose asked.

"I think he's talking to Jersey" Washington told him.

The Blue soldier immediately took off to look for the Freelancer siblings, leaving Washington with the others, who were staring at him expectantly.

"What?"

Tucker and Simmons shared a look. "Well, aren't you gonna tell us the story with Jersey and Penn?" Simmons asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, we've been travelling with both of them, following them and listening to them. It doesn't seem smart to do that when we know pretty much nothing about them."

"Fine, what do you want to know?" Questioned Wash.

"Are they psychotic like the others?" Simmons asked.

"Is Jersey single?" asked Tucker.

"When was their last medical evaluation?" Doc questioned.

"They aren't psychotic. Tucker, I have no idea but hitting on a Freelancer is typically a bad idea. And Doc, I'm guessing they haven't been checked since they left the project. Now, anything else?"

"Well, you worked with them. What can you tell us about them?" Simmons asked.

"They were never part of my squad" Washington explained, "Penn was in charge of a squad of lower ranked Freelancers. Jersey was a part of that squad as well."

"Okay, well what about his AI?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, is it gonna start jumping into peoples' helmets and make them evil?" Doc added fearfully.

"I didn't even know Penn had an AI until a few minutes before you found out. I know pretty much nothing about it, but Penn says it's fine."

The simulation soldiers did not look convinced, and Washington honestly could not blame them. He trusted Penn for the most part, during their time in the project the little bit of interaction they'd had had been friendly, and Penn had always stuck him as trustworthy. And ever since they'd come across each other again, Penn had been willing to share information, albeit with a small bit of convincing on Washingtons' part. Still, AI units always put things into question. He had always trusted Maine, but Sigma had twisted Maine into a psychotic monster. He had trusted Carolina, but he couldn't help wonder if her AI had been messing with her head, especially after his own experiences with Epsilon.

Even the AI he had liked, Delta and Theta, had caused a great deal of trouble, albeit unintentionally. Theta had gotten North killed and given the Meta more power. Delta working with South had lead to her shooting Wash in the back, and later her being attacked by the Meta. Not to mention Caboose nearly getting killed when the Meta finally had managed to obtain him.

He would have to keep an eye on Penn, he decided. Not because he mistrusted him, but because he was worried about what problems Iota would cause.

Penn and Jersey stood at the top of a nearby hill, talking with one another about what they had done in the time since they had last seen one another. At least, that's what they were doing until Caboose came running up.

"Agent Pencil Van!" he shouted, causing Jersey to give an amused chuckle.

"Hello Caboose" Penn greeted. "Do you need something?"

"Can you help me finish building Sheila?" the Blue soldier asked hopefully.

Jersey turned to Penn "Building who?"

"They apparently had a smart tank, and I've been helping Caboose build a body for its AI, since the tank was destroyed" Penn explained.

"But there are no parts out here for you to use" Jersey pointed out.

Penn was silent for a long moment. "Yeah….didn't really think that through."

Caboose held his head down dejectedly "So…we can't fix Sheila?"

"We can when we get back to Valhalla" Penn promised.

"Okay!" Caboose said happily before going back to the rest of the group.

Washington was at the edge of camp, keeping lookout when Caboose returned to the group. Grif was napping, Doc was preparing medical equipment to go examine Penn and Jersey (who had no idea about this), and Tucker was talking with Simmons. Caboose went over to his sleeping bag, from which he pulled out some paper and crayons, then sat down and began drawing.


End file.
